Kids Ocean Day

Since 1991, the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education in conjunction with LA Sanitation (LASAN) coordinates the annual "Kids Ocean Day Adopt-a-Beach Clean-Up" in Los Angeles. Every year, thousands of Los Angeles school children, parents, teachers and volunteers come together at Dockweiler State Beach for a massive clean-up and aerial art formation, and to raise awareness of the adverse impacts of ocean litter and pollution.

The beach clean-up and aerial art formation are the culmination of a year-long school education program that teaches kids the power of everyday actions to protect and preserve our oceans and natural world. The program emphasizes that clean beaches and oceans start with clean neighborhoods, and reinforces the environmental ethic that is at the heart of LASAN's school outreach programs. Through this program kids see the ocean and make the connection with their lives and their neighborhoods in a tangible and compelling way, and make the connection between the ocean and the harm of litter.

Kids Ocean Day 2015

Kids Ocean Day 2015 was one for the history books.

This year, Mother Nature’s late spring rain arrived just as 3,500 of us were taking our places in the sand. The kids were troopers, standing in their soggy shirts, determined to form a large mosaic (we were creating a school of 20 fish). But the cloud cover meant the helicopter couldn’t take off, so for the first time in 22 years, Kids Ocean Day wouldn’t end with aerial art.

It was disappointing, but there were some silver linings, too. For one, it reminded us that the true gift of Kids Ocean Day is the clean-up. Every day, each one of us—without helicopters or cameras, rain or shine—can do our part. We can pick up litter. We can recycle and compost. We can dispose of toxic waste properly at a S.A.F.E. Center.

Secondly, Kids Ocean Day isn’t the only one making history. With California battling an historic drought, every rain drop (even the inconvenient ones) is a blessing.